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A Personal Face of World War II
By Thomas G. Ratliff
© 2005
Somewhere I have read, “that a man is not dead until he is forgotten”. With that thought in mind I took on the challenge of keeping my father’s memory alive. I am the author of the book “I Can Hear The Guns Now”. This book is about my father’s time in World War II, and my parent’s story.

I have looked at things from a different perspective, I have put WW II on a personal level. I tell about the love of a young family, just one of many WW II families, and the sacrifices they endured. I relate how it affected one man, one family, and how that family had to cope with the disruption of their lives, and then the family devastation of his war time death.

Many times I have been asked the question, why did you write this book? The roots of it go back to when I was a child of five. That was when my father was drafted to serve in World War II. When he left I was told, “your father went to the war” and then when I was six I was told, “your father won’t be coming home, he was killed in the war”. The war changed things forever.

As a child I felt the agony of a broken heart and the tormenting pain of, “your father was killed in the war”, but I accepted what I was told. The hurt of missing my father was never forgotten, it was just filed away in the far corners of my mind. As a World War II orphan I never had the opportunity to learn about life from my father. But my mother and grandparents shouldered the heavy burden of raising me and my siblings, at the same time they were grieving for their own lost loved one. The pieces of our shattered and broken family were picked up by the remaining members, and life went on.

As I went through life, and grew older I began to realize that I had carried fond memories of my father lovingly tucked away in my thoughts. The longing to really know what happened to him along with a feeling of emptiness of growing up without him gradually surfaced. I began to realized that I needed meaningful knowledge of…. Who he really was? What really happened to him? How I was like him, and how I was different? When I was about fifty-five years old those emotionally charged thoughts surfaced more and more. I finally decided it was time for me to learn about my father.

That was when I began to read and study all of Dad’s war time letters. I had many questions… so I would ask mother, who was eighty-three at the time. She agreed to let me record our conversations for posterity. In the next ten months we recorded four, ninety minute tapes talking about those times in our lives. Our emotions ran the gamut as I dredged up those long ago, sometimes forgotten, memories.

Mother had faithfully saved all 84 of those fifty year old letters that he had written home. But, they were showing their age, the ravages of time were taking their toll. It was very apparent that those yellowed - brittle pages, in a few more years, would be gone. It slowly dawned on me that all of those precious memories needed to be preserved. Not only were they a window into my family’s past, but they were also a glimpse into the tragic times of World War II. So, now you know why I wrote “I Can Hear The Guns Now”.

In writing my book, I have taken a different approach. Most World War II books and stories look at the big picture.
They deal with the major battles and large groups, such as divisions, battalions, companies, and so on. Well, I didn’t. I put an individual face on the horrors of war.

Ova W. Ratliff, a school teacher, was drafted at age thirty-four. He was the husband of Hazel, the father of Thomas - Harriett - and Ova W. II. He was torn between his duty to his family, and his duty to his country. He really didn’t want to leave his family, or be a soldier. He wanted nothing more than to love and grow old with mother, and provide for his family. But, when he was called he went, just as many other brave Americans have done through out our history, and in the end gave all he had to give for the cause of freedom.

In the book I have used all of the 84 letters to chronicle the last eight months of his life. They are all in the book, word for word, just as they were written. He described the day to day life, the physical and mental torment of basic training at Camp Fannin, Texas, during that hot summer of 1944. In the letters he described the loneliness and desperation he felt in being torn away from his family. But, as you read his letters you can see his gradual transformation into a soldier.

After his basic training was over, on August 8th, 1944, he returned home on a “10 day delay in routing” visit. At the end of those glorious days, that was the last time the family ever saw him.

In the book, my parent’s story is told using flashbacks during their last night together. They stopped in Lexington, Kentucky, on his way back to Cincinnati’s Union Terminal to catch a troop train, and they spent their last ever night together at the Phoenix Hotel. This, ironically, was the same hotel where they spent the first night of their honeymoon 10 years earlier.

In the hotel room that last night they reminisce, and talk about the important events in their lives such as, how they met, getting married, the trials in the life of a young family, having children, and finally being drafted. Then I start putting the letters in, just as they were written. At the beginning, and end, of each letter I will make a few comments, just to let the reader know what it meant to me, and to clarify any point that you, the reader, might not know.

My father was trained to be an Infantry Replacement soldier, and was shipped overseas out of Aberdeen, Maryland, September 24th, 1944. Shortly after boarding that ship, that was taking him far away from his family and homeland, one can only imagine the excruciating torment and heartache he must have been feeling the moment he put these agonizing words on paper,

“My Dearest Hazel and Children,
I am now aboard ship in the harbor. We came aboard not long ago. The officer said we might write so it could be mailed before we pull out. So, as my mind is very much on you all, My loved ones, I will write you a few lines. I can fully understand and appreciate the meaning of the words, “These are the times that try men’s souls”. As I stepped on the gang plank a little while ago I looked around and it seemed I could see each one of you and I breathed a prayer for you. May God Bless You.
Love, Ova”

When you read his letters you quickly learn that Dad was very caring and had high morals. Then in one of his first letters, after arriving in England, he wrote that on board ship, while crossing the Atlantic, he took “Jesus as my Personal Savior”. As you read his letters you will readily see that he promptly became a devout Christian.

He eventually worked his way to Germany’s Huertgen Forest, although there were several stops along the way. First he went to Southern England, then he made three stops in France, then next to Liege, Belgium, and finally to the Huertgen Forest. He kept a running dialogue going in his letters about where he was, and what he was doing.

On his first day in Germany, November 7, 1944, he wrote his last two letters home, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. In one of those letters he wrote that he had not been in battle yet, and then he said, “We can’t move much more for the front lines are CLOSE NOW.” Then he said, “I can hear the guns NOW”. That was the last we ever heard from him. Can you just imagine the fear that he must have felt at that moment in time?

To me it seemed that everything that had been going on in his life, those previous 8 months, had steered him to that dreadful place and had caused him to make those frightening statements.

For a long time I didn’t have a name for the book, but, after thinking about those last statements I knew it had to be named “I Can Hear The Guns Now”.

On November 8, 1944, Private Ova W. Ratliff was assigned as a replacement soldier to the 1st Army, 28th Div., 110th Inf., Co. C. He died, probably in the early morning hours of November 14, 1944, in a fierce fight in that green hell, on a cold, muddy, battle scarred hillside of the Huertgen Forest, high above the Kall River, just a few hundred yards southwest of the village of Simonskall. His death changed my life, and our family’s life forever.

When the book was published I made a commitment to donate some of the proceeds from the sale of each book to the National WW II Memorial in Washington, DC. My wife and I had the honor of going to Washington, DC, to attend the National Conference of the American World War II Orphans Network, affectionately known as AWON. The conference coincided with the dedication ceremony of The National WW II Memorial on Memorial Day 2004. On the Friday, before the dedication ceremony on Saturday, Senator Bob Dole, the co-chairman for the memorial, was our AWON featured speaker. After his speech I made good on my commitment. I was able to go up on stage and personally hand my donation check to Senator Dole.

As I handed him the check I said this, “This donation is to honor the love that my father and mother had for each other and the sacrifice they both made for our country.” He graciously accepted the donation and later sent me a personally signed Thank You note.

These readers have given me permission to publish their comments about my book.

Earl W. Kinner -- Publisher, Licking Valley Courier -- West Liberty, Kentucky
“I congratulate you on a great job. Nothing I have read had described for me the war as it affected the lives of ordinary people as well and as poignantly as does the story you have given us of your father and mother and your family -- nor of the terrible human cost required of the citizens. How starkly your parents’ story portrays the terrible cost in lives as evidenced by the necessity of those dark days that required sending hastily-trained, middle-aged fathers into battle -- and as I read between the lines of your dad’s letters -- the (probably unspoken) rule in the military of sparing men with families as long as possible from the blood letting. Your book is a treasure, in our opinion -- a real historical gem.”

Carol Brewer -- Middletown, Ohio
“Your book portrays the story of a real American hero. It was such a moving story that touched my heart, and I’m sure the heart of anyone else who has read it. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every young American could read your book! It should be required reading in American History classes, and for every politician. In fact, all Americans could benefit from reading your book. I will keep recommending it to others.”

David Wendt -- World War II Veteran -- Tyler, Texas
“Tom, I received your book in the mail yesterday, sat down and read the first 120 pages. I am impressed with it. The book, when read by a person in my age group, has an impact beyond that which you may realize.”

Sheila McClung -- Trenton, Ohio
“When I picked up your book I began to read about history. I never realized how personal it would become. I finished it in two sittings. I hurt for Hazel, knew the children by name, and felt the pain of their father’s leaving. I cried when I read Ova’s letter to Hazel, that he wrote when he boarded the ship. War is about people. Thank you for helping us remember that.”

Bettye Morris Bobroff -- Albuquerque, New Mexico
“I enjoyed your book so much --- The book reflects our heritage -- and the love, joy, pain and heartbreak of so many who served in World War II.”

If anyone would like to purchase my book it is available on the American World War II Orphans Network website at www.awon.org just click on the bookstore tab.

Respectfully submitted by,
Thomas G. Ratliff, author
Carlisle, Ohio, 45005, USA
I Can Hear The Guns Now ISBN 0-9704865-0-2

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